Bengaluru, November 26: Ace Indian shuttler PV Sindhu stayed in line for title defence after entering the semifinals of the Indonesia Open Super 1000 tournament in Bali on Friday (November 25).
The world champion came back fighting after losing the opening game to tame down her South Korean opponent Sim Yujin 14-21, 21-19, 21-14 to make it to the round of four.
For the records, it is Sindhu's third semifinal appearance in a row in the Badminton World Federation (BWF) sanctioned tournaments following the French Open and Indonesia Open (Super 750 Series) events respectively.
𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐈𝐃 𝐈𝐓 🔥
— BAI Media (@BAI_Media) November 26, 2021
Reigning world champion @Pvsindhu1 marched into the semifinals at #IndonesiaOpen2021. She beat 🇰🇷's Sim Yujin 14-21, 21-19, 21-14 in the quarter final 👊
📸: Badminton Photo#IndiaontheRise#Badminton pic.twitter.com/JusllSaCIF
Earlier, the two-time Olympic medallist had defeated Germany's Yvonne Li 21-12, 21-18 in a match that last 37 minutes on court 3 to reach the last 8 of the tournament.
Such was her dominance in the pre-quarterfinals that the 26-year-old took the first game with ease, winning seven consecutive points at one stage.
Li made a good recovery in the second game and it was more evenly contested. But Sindhu persisted and did not let the German gain an advantage over her.
The Hyderabadi shuttler, ranked seven in the world, had lost in the semifinals of the BWF Super 750 Series Indonesia Open badminton tournament last week and will be hoping to make amends this time.
The double-Olympic champion had also bowed out at the same stage in the BWF French Open tournament last month in Paris.
PV Sindhu to contest BWF Athletes' Commission election in December
Recently the ace Indian had decided to contest the BWF Athletes' Commission election to be held along the sidelines of the World Championships in Spain on December 17.
It may be recalled that in the month of May, Sindhu was also named athlete ambassador for International Olympic Committee's (IOC) Believe in Sports campaign.
Sindhu, is one of the nine candidates nominated for the available six positions.
The Hyderabadi shuttler is the only current Athletes' Commission member standing for re-election. She was first elected in 2017 and is one of six women representatives running this cycle.
Sindhu will be joined by Indonesia's women's doubles player Greysia Polii, who won the gold medal at the recent Tokyo Olympics.
Later on Friday (November 26), Indian men's pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also entered the semifinals of the ongoing Indonesia Open.
The Indian duo defeated the Malaysian pair of Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin from Malaysia by 21-19, 21-19 in a closely contested battle at Court 2 in 43 minutes.
Rankireddy and Shetty will now clash with Kevin Sukamuljo and Marcus Gideon of Indonesia for a place in the final.
Meanwhile, B Sai Praneeth, the other Indian in action, crashed out of the tournament after straight games 12-21, 8-21 defeat to Olympic champion and second seeded Viktor Axelsen in the quarterfinal.